


The Bricks They Threw

by Emmeebee



Series: QLFC Season 5 [8]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Family, Gen, Poetry, The Quidditch League Fanfiction Competition
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-24
Updated: 2017-08-24
Packaged: 2018-12-19 06:31:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 223
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11892024
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Emmeebee/pseuds/Emmeebee
Summary: They threw bricks. She built castles.





	The Bricks They Threw

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the QLFC Daily Prophet Issue 6 Poem Competition  
> Prompt: (character) Petunia Evans Dursley  
> Inspired by the songs New Romantics by Taylor Swift and River Run Red by Rachel Rose Mitchell

She flinches with every brick their careless words throw at her  
until they are so commonplace that she doesn't even notice them,  
yet her heart is bruised; not by the cruelty of fists, but of comparisons  
to the charming girl with fire in her eyes and lightning in her tongue  
that Petunia never has, never can, and never _will_ live up to —  
for even when she ignores the unwitting blows, they land.

Her sister looks skywards as she dances among shooting stars,  
but _her_ gaze stays grounded and focused on the wooden front door  
that promises to lead her out into a world without bricks and blows  
and where bruised hearts can breathe and take shelter and heal;  
she studies and she learns and she works and she marries,  
and once she leaves that place of torment, she never, ever looks back.

For she has used the bricks they threw to build a castle of her own  
that wraps around her heart and keeps it safe from enemy fire  
with walls as strong as adamantine and a moat that's red with blood;  
she swears that she will never again let _that sort_ close enough to hurt her,  
so she surrounds herself with normal people living normal lives of normalcy  
and no matter how much _that boy_ bangs on the gates, they remain barred.


End file.
